AAP collaborated with a private institute to provide coaching but stopped the initiative later. Express
Kirpan Singh of Rajkiya Pratibha Vikas Vidyalaya (RPVV), Kishanganj, was the first to raise his hand. He got up, held the mic and posed his question: “Last year, students who were appearing for the engineering entrance examination had got free coaching. Why was that facility stopped? Can it be started again?”
Singh’s question was directed at Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia, who sat on the stage, during an interaction held to congratulate students who had cleared JEE Main.
In 2016, the Aam Aadmi Party government had collaborated with a private institute to provide coaching to promising students. Students had to clear a written test to be eligible. But the initiative was discontinued this year.
Replying to Singh’s question, Sisodia said, “The scheme was started on a pilot basis and we got feedback from a lot of students that they were not being able to cope with it. After taking the feedback, we stopped the scheme.”
This year, a total of 338 government school students cleared the JEE Main examination to get admission in engineering institutes, and become eligible to sit for JEE Advanced for admission to IITs. Last year, 372 students had cleared JEE Main.
Singh’s demand was reiterated by Shiva Gupta of the Sarvodaya Bal Vidyalaya, Vikaspuri. He asked for coaching facilities so that “students of government schools start scoring above 300 marks”. The government school topper who cleared the JEE Main, Prateek Bhardwaj, scored 221 marks out of 360.
The principal of a school in Rohini, A K Jha, told Sisodia, “Sir please bring the coaching facility back. I have prepared a roadmap on how to do this. I can show it you.”
Further suggestions also followed about the government holding such interactions with students who clear the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) for admission to medical institutes.
A student of RPVV, Lajpat Nagar, talked about the need to fill vacant posts. “Our principal helped us with physics but it would have been nice if we had the same for chemistry and biology. We have a shortage of teachers in our school,” said the student, Pratistha.
To this, Kejriwal replied, “We are coming up with a scheme where the school principal and school management committee can coordinate and fill the posts temporarily.”